Dreamers
by XAOTL Omega
Summary: Pearlshipping One-shot. In the future Ash and Dawn find that the future is something that has many trials. Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this fic.


**Dreamers**

Been a while since I did a short story, so I thought I'd get one out for Pearlshipping, seeing how there aren't many out there, hopefully it's not all that bad. It's based in their future, say mid-twenties. I hope you like it.

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Ash looked to the girl that lay upon the hospital bed, the beeps of the machine a constant companion in the soulless hospital air.

Dawn was asleep, a peaceful sleep. No one knew why it had to happen to her, she was healthy and energetic as she had always been an unlikely candidate to become overstretched by the ordeal she had to go through; the only thing that was clear was that she had to be kept alive and the doctors had worked on that.

She slept peacefully, the white blanket and pillows, matched how pale her skin had become. The breath in and out, the only physical sign apart from the machines that assured Ash. Her blue hair that lay upon the pillows glittering as it always had. Her care of her hair had continued in later life. It hadn't lost life, it was still there, vibrant, unlike the girl that it lay upon.

The wires that were everywhere. Through her nose, through her wrists, wrapping her body in their snake like grasp. He wanted to touch her, he needed to touch her, and feel her warmth, her heartbeat beating in time with his. He needed her help to help him get through this.

But he couldn't he couldn't move. A grown man and he was scared, as if the wires were snakes that had wrapped her, and he couldn't go near them in case his presence takes away any slim chance she may have. These wires that had been his only hope, they were his only hope that she wouldn't die.

_It was afternoon, and Dawn was in the kitchen, rushing over to the fridge, looking up and down to see it stripped bare. She looked around, searching for popcorn, somewhere, anywhere. She went to the cupboard, looking for something, by god she was hungry. Finding a bunch of riceballs that Brock had sent. Even if she was married and living a good life that was almost dreamlike, Brock had always made sure they were alright._ _Dawn felt happy, she was mid-way through her pregnancy, the cravings were to her the best part. Popcorn and popcorn and popcorn. _

_She had her own house now, a husband, a smile on her face. Feeling a pair of arms wrap around her from the back, Dawn sunk in letting the feeling overtake her, as she took another bite of the riceballs. The warmth him was, filling her from every corner. Was there anything better in life?_

"_You going to give me any?" he whispered into her ear, his arms slowly moving to her belly where their child slowly grew._

"_Get your own food; you ate out the whole fridge last night." She said in a slightly muffled voice from the riceballs that she had stuffed herself with. "and I'm the pregnant one, unless you have twins in your belly." She joked, eating more as she slowly turned around to face her husband. When he asked her out, then to come and stay a bit longer, then a bit longer, then to never leave. It was like things a fairy tale. _

_She looked towards him as he gave a warm smile, moving his head to her neck to give gentle kisses upwards, finally reaching her lips, and when he stopped she whispered, "You can have a riceball if you want." Could things be any better?_

"Ash!" Misty said bursting into the room, the bouquet of flowers in one hand did not matter. As she immediately threw herself into a hug with the shocked boy.

"Ash, I came as soon as I heard." She said overdramatically into his chest, sobbing slightly to show how much she was shocked by this revelation.

"Misty, what's going on?" he asked, "why are you crying?" so much, he thought that she would have surely know that bursting in with tears was not the right thing to do. She wasn't dead yet.

"Is she alright?" she sniffled, lifting her head to face Ash, he arms still around him as he stood still in shock.

"I'm sure she'll be fine." He said slowly, wondering why his friend was crying like a baby, it wasn't as if she was that close with Dawn. If anything, how did she find out her condition?

"What did the doctors say?" she asked, knowing how Ash would always look onto the brighter side of things, just one of his personality traits. Just one more thing that caused Misty to want him.

"Well, they said that she is in a stable condition, and will be alright." He quoted, knowing that it was the only thing that would work for Misty, anything else would allow her to break him down. Why was she here?

But Misty knew that all these wires were not a good sign, and was not the sign of a person who would last for a very long time. When she found out that Ash did... she was crushed. But now in the light of this new news, maybe she would be able to help him heal and they would be able to get together. "Ash, how are you holding up." She asked with a show of sympathy upon her face, wondering how Ash had taken to things.

"I'll be fine." He responded, calmly. His eyes betraying nothing. Almost to the point where it appeared as if he didn't care. If anything, it comforted Misty, knowing that he would be able to let go of her easily, yet for the act that she had put on she had to say something.

"But Ash She's your... She's in a hospital bed. Did you feel a little bit sad?" she asked, as Ash's brows became furrowed. Clearly irritated by Misty's assumption, an outsider from his and Dawns relationship coming in to say that.

"Well what am I going to do Misty? Cry on the floor? She's going to be alright, she won't want me to cry, and there is no reason to be over the top." He said with certainty that seemed to evade Misty. She took not of how he had grown up, remembering how it took very little to light a fury from him.

"But, Ash. Is she going to be alright?" she said with a sense of hysteria that came about as a result of over acting.

Ash suddenly became tired, he had too much to think about, and things were going too fast. He couldn't handle it with her whinging. With a sigh, he put his hands upon Misty's shoulders and slowly pushed her away. "Misty, calm down." He ordered, looking into her eyes.

"Are you alright?" she asked with a trace of genuine concern filling her voice.

Ash let out a weak smile as he looked to Misty in the eyes, "I'm great, absolutely great." He said, but she would want things to be explained, and to keep her quiet she would show her. Dawn could stay alone for a while, "Come on, there is something I have to show you." He said, and with that they left Dawn to rest on her own.

_Dawn looked over to her husband, their child playing on the swings, her husband pushing their now four year old boy, since his birth her husband had become a different person, completely different. All his anxieties had gone away; he had bonded like glue to their son, the loving parent she had always known he'd become._

_Their beautiful boy, five, no four years old. Looked just like him, his messy hair, his eyes. No the eyes was like hers. Were they, were there any eyes._

Ash bought Misty into the room, cautiously opening the door, as if he would shatter something with any rash movements. Slowly he walked in, guiding the Gym leader behind him. "Hey buddy he whispered, to Pikachu that had taken to sleeping upon a warm pillow. The Pokémon twitched its ears and turned to face its best friend, Pikachu had gotten older and more tired as the days went on, but despite the change of pace it had gone through its friendship with the trainer had been as strong as ever.

Pikachu slept at the base of a stand that carried a see through plastic box. Inside of it there were bundles of white blankets, small, wires running between the sheets to a small child that slept peacefully inside the box. "What's that?" Misty said with the same amount of caution as Ash had, the awe of looking at a new life, overtaking the fear of Ash being committed to another family.

"That's, my daughter." Ash said, with a smile, walking towards the plastic box and kneeling so that he was able to see that child that was no larger than his arm, unusually small for a newborn child. "Dawn had a premature birth. We had to rush to hospital, now Dawn and my daughter have to stay in bed till they get better." Ash said, knowing that he had to tell Misty the facts, anything else would just result in her pestering him. Something that he had learnt to do growing up, meeting angry people like her almost everyday.

"You and Dawn?" Misty asked, seeing her fears come true, till now it had only been rumours, abut them getting together. But then she heard that Dawn had gotten hurt, some part of her had urged her to rush there and do whatever she could for her friend, and if possible one day become more than that. She had no idea what it was that got her to cry when she first saw Ash; just that she had to show him that she cared.

_Dawn stood outside the house, it was raining, raining everywhere. Why was she outside in the cold?_

_She knocked on the door heavily as winds began to grow wildly, trying to bring her away, but she had to go in. She knocked harder and harder, there should be someone there. Where was her love?_

_She rushed over to the window, pushing against the wild wind that tried to sweep her away. Then the wind and rain stopped and the sky became dark. Dawn looked through the window of her house to find her husband with a red headed woman, the two of them talking with each other, nothing too much, nothing to suggest that they are lovers. But this woman was in her house. This woman was with her husband, and they had left her out in the cold._

_The more she cried the closer they became, until._

"You two had a baby?" Misty asked to confirm what she had in front of her eyes. He had a family, a family in a critical condition, but still a family.

"Yeah." Ash said, knowing that things hadn't proceeded as well as people would initially think young love would be like. They weren't children anymore, they had to get money, food, a house and things were running out of control. When he found out that she was pregnant, his whole world span out of control, would they survive without that much money. Would they even make good parents, and sometimes he would cry, wondering if things would hold together at all. They weren't even married, and how much would it cost to get married. Things just

Now, in sight of his daughter, their daughter. Things didn't seem too bad for a while; after all he was a dad. That had to count for something.

Then things seemed to become darker, Ash felt as if something had happened, something....

Ash broke out in a run out of the room, running through corridors, faster and faster, he had to go. Misty's shouts behind of him. Calling him to stop, or slow down, but he knew what he had to do, he needed to keep going. She needed him. He ran Faster and faster, until he could run no more.

_Dawn cried out alone in the forest, all alone. There was nowhere she could go. She needed him, she always wanted a life like she had lived, and she just didn't think that it could crash down like that. He loved her, she did love him. Why couldn't he come and rescue her, all alone._

Doctors crowded all around the young mother, she was in a critical condition, and then all of a sudden the father ran into the room, another young girl trailing behind him.

Ash stood still, frozen in shock, he had to do something, yet moving forward could possibly just do more harm than good.

_She had to get out._

Dawn opened her eyes, the doctors everywhere, the blinding light; she turned her head, seeing her husband with the Red haired woman.

She then found no reason to carry on, and he cried into the night knowing that his love had passed on.

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**So what do you think, please review, thank you for reading.**


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